Original Thunderbirds cast member David Graham is to provide the voice of Parker once again in the new version of the TV series, it was announced today - on the 48th anniversary of the original show's first broadcast.

He will be joined by Rosamund Pike as Lady Penelope, to whom Parker is chauffeur, Kayvan Novak as Brains, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Gordon and John Tracy, Rasmus Hardiker as Alan and Scott Tracy, and David Menkin as the fifth Tracy brother, Virgil, in Thunderbirds Are Go!, which has just started production.

Meanwhile, Tracy Island matriarch Grandma Tracy will be voiced by Sandra Dickinson (the former wife of Peter Davison) and Andres Williams is to play master villain The Hood, said ITV.

Debuting in 2015, this reinvention of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's much-loved series featuring the exploits of International Rescue will be produced using a mix of CGI animation and live-action miniature sets. Thunderbirds Are Go! will also feature new characters including Kayo, the Tracy brothers' friend and fellow island resident, who will be played by Angel Coulby, and Colonel Casey, voiced by Adjoa Andoh.

Graham said:

I am triple-chuffed to be on board the new series of Thunderbirds Are Go! and reprising my role of dear old Parker with such a distinguished cast. My driving skills are in good nick and I am delighted to be behind the wheel again with M’Lady. Cheerio!

Pike commented:

I'm very excited to bring Lady Penelope's wry wit and taste for adventure to a new generation. Exploring the scenes with David Graham has been an absolute delight. The scripts are very modern, very fresh, and very funny. We're all eagerly anticipating our next stint in the recording studio!

Each member of the cast has brought a brilliantly fresh and unique approach to these wonderful characters. I can't think of anyone better than Rosamund to bring back to life the fabulous Lady Penelope, and we are honoured that David Graham has joined the cast to revisit his role as Parker.

Thunderbirds Are Go! is being produced by ITV Studios and New Zealand-based Pukeko Pictures, with Weta Workshop designing the series and producing the miniatures. The 26 30-minute episodes will debut on CITV in 2015.

Ridge's fellow executive producers are Estelle Hughes for ITV Studios and Richard Taylor and Andrew Smith for Pukeko Pictures. The head writer is Rob Hoegee and the series director is David Scott, with Theo Baynton as episodic director.

Thunderbirds originally aired on ITV from 1965 to 1966, with 32 episodes over two series. The first episode - Trapped In The Sky - was first broadcast 48 years ago today, with ATV Midlands, Westward, and Channel being the first TV regions in the UK to show it.

With the BBC's new fantasy drama Atlantis starting tonight, here's a preview trailer to whet your appetite - and you could be in for a surprise from the word go as the lead character Jason, played by Jack Donnelly, starts the search for his father that triggers his epic adventures!

The Earth Bull - the first episode of the 13-part drama - will air at 8.25pm on BBC One. Episode two is entitled A Girl By Any Other Name and is currently scheduled to be shown at the same time on Saturday 5th October.

Children's sci-fi fantasy drama Wizards vs Aliens returns to CBBC this autumn for an extended second series and the BBC started revving up the publicity machine for it today.

Created by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford, it brings magic and sci-fi together as 16-year-old wizard Tom Clarke and his scientific friend Benny Sherwood try to stop the alien Nekross from creating massive trouble for all of wizardkind - and threatening the survival of Earth.

The 14-episode series - two episodes longer than the first - sees the return of Scott Haran as Tom and Percelle Ascott as Benny, as well as Annette Badland (Ursula Crowe), Michael Higgs (Michael Clarke), Jefferson Hall (Varg), Gwendoline Christie (Lexi), Dan Starkey (Randal Moon), Tom Bell (Technician Jathro 15), and the voice of Brian Blessed as the alien Nekross King.

New aliens and new wizards are promised, and Davies, who is also the co-executive producer of the show, said:

It's a delight to be back on CBBC with a series which is wilder, bolder, deeper, and funnier than ever, taking us from suburbia to the wilds of Tibet, encountering spaceships, magical worlds, haunted castles, and galactic wars along the way.

And at the centre of it all is the most important thing of all - the friendship between two boys, as junior wizard Tom and his best friend Benny fight to save the world. Magic and science are a combustible mix - and this year it's going to explode!

One of the stories - The Thirteenth Floor, written by Ford - will be a reworking of an adventure intended to form part of the fifth, and ultimately final, series of The Sarah Jane Adventures but which was never made because of the tragic death of the show's star, Elisabeth Sladen, in April 2011.

Produced by BBC Cymru Wales in association with FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment, the new series of Wizards vs Aliens was filmed at the BBC's Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff and on location around the area between January and May this year.

The first series aired between 29th October and 4th December 2012. The start date for Series 2 is yet to be announced.

The 13-episode show - seen as a replacement for Merlin, which ended last December after five series - will start in the UK on Saturday 28th September, according to the BBC Media Centre, although the broadcast time is yet to be confirmed.

The images show Jack Donnelly as Jason, who has been searching for his father for 20 years and finds himself washed up on the shores of the ancient land, Robert Emms as Pythagoras and Mark Addy as Hercules - the two friends he makes there, Alexander Siddig as Atlantis's King Minos, Sarah Parish as the king's wife Pasiphaë, Aiysha Hart as Ariadne, his heir, Joe Dixon as Ramos, the king's battle-hardened general, Juliet Stevenson as the Oracle, Ken Bones as Melas, a high priest in the Temple of Poseidon and trusted ally of the Oracle, and Jemima Rooper as Medusa.

UPDATE - THURSDAY 19th SEPTEMBER: The first episode - entitled The Earth Bull - will be broadcast in the UK at 8.25pm on Saturday 28th September. The show has also been bought by Canal Plus in France and Space in Canada, ahead of its launch at the global entertainment content market Mipcom in Cannes next month. Space has announced that it will be premiering it on Saturday 12th October at 8pm ET with two back-to-back episodes.

Channel 4 is to air the series Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Friday 27th September - just three days after it premières in the USA on ABC.

Co-created by Joss Whedon along with his brother Jed and Jed's wife Maurissa Tancharoen, it sees Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel's feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organisation S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division) to investigate extra-normal and superhuman people and events worldwide.

Coulson's team consists of Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who is highly trained in combat and espionage, expert pilot and martial artist Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), top engineer Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), and genius bio-chemist Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). Joining them is new recruit and computer hacker Skye, played by Chloe Bennet.

The show - Marvel's first TV series - will air in the UK at 8pm, and Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt said:

Like the superhero universe from which it has come, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is big, bold, and absolutely exhilarating. Featuring the production values you'd expect from Marvel and ABC Studios, this is family entertainment at its most exciting.

Joss Whedon directed and wrote the screenplay for the 2012 feature film Marvel Avengers Assemble and created cult TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse.

The 13 episodes begin where Marvel Avengers Assemble left off.

It's just after the battle of New York, and now that the existence of superheroes and aliens has become public knowledge, the world is trying to come to grips with this new reality.

Agent Phil Coulson is back in action and now has his eye on a mysterious group called The Rising Tide. In order to track this unseen, unknown enemy, he has assembled a small, highly select group of agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organisation known as S.H.I.E.L.D.

They must try to track down an ordinary man who has gained extraordinary powers - the use of which could have devastating consequences.

The Whedons and Tancharoen are also the executive producers, along with Jeph Loeb and Jeffrey Bell. The series has been produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

The American revival of classic ITV children's fantasy/drama/sci-fi series The Tomorrow People is to be shown in the UK on the digital channel E4 early next year.

The 13-episode sci-fi show, which will première on American broadcast TV network The CW on Wednesday 9th October, stars Robbie Amell as Stephen Jameson, Luke Mitchell as John Young, Aaron Yoo as Russell Kwon, Peyton List as Cara Coburn, Mark Pellegrino as Dr Jedikiah Price, Madeleine Mantock as Astrid Finch, Jason Dohring as Killian McCrane, and the voice of Dan Stevens as the biotronic computer TIM.

They are the next evolutionary leap of mankind, a generation of humans born with paranormal abilities - the Tomorrow People. Stephen Jameson stands at the crossroads between the world we know and the shifting world of the future. Up until a year ago, Stephen was a "normal" teenager - until he began hearing voices and teleporting in his sleep, never knowing where he might wake up. Now, Stephen's issues have gone far beyond the usual teenage angst, and he is beginning to question his sanity.

In desperation, he decides to listen to one of the voices in his head, and it leads him to his first encounter with the Tomorrow People - John, Cara, and Russell - a genetically-advanced race with the abilities of telekinesis, teleportation, and telepathic communication. However, the Tomorrow People are being hunted down by a paramilitary group of scientists known as Ultra. Led by Dr Jedikiah Price, Ultra sees the Tomorrow People as a very real existential threat from a rival species, and the outcast group has been forced to hide out in an abandoned subway station just beneath the surface of the human world.

Trading in secrets, Jedikiah offers Stephen the chance for a normal life with his family and best friend Astrid if he will help in the struggle to isolate and eradicate the Tomorrow People. On the other hand, Cara, John, and Russell offer Stephen a different type of family and a home where he truly belongs.

Unwilling to turn his back on humanity or the world of the Tomorrow People, Stephen sets out on his own path - a journey that could take him into the shadowy past to uncover the truth about his father's mysterious disappearance, or into an unknown future with the Tomorrow People.

The new series has been made by Bonanza Productions Inc in association with Berlanti Productions, FremantleMedia, Warner Bros Television, and CBS Television Studios. The executive producers are Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec, Danny Cannon, Phil Klemmer, Thom Beers, and Craig Cegielski, with Melissa Kellner Berman as co-executive producer. It is based on the ITV series of the same name, which was devised by Roger Price and ran for 68 episodes over eight series from 1973 to 1979. A rebooted version that bore little resemblance to its progenitor ran for 25 episodes over three series between 1992 and 1995, while between 2001 and 2007 Big Finish produced five series of officially licensed audio productions starring cast members from the original show.

The latest version is part of a package of three dramas bought from Warner by Channel 4, with the others being Hostages - showing on Channel 4 - and apocalyptic The 100, which is also to be shown on E4. Exact starting dates for their broadcast in the UK have yet to be confirmed.

Jeffrey R Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros Worldwide Television Distribution, said:

These three series were incredibly well-received and sought after at the LA Screenings and we are pleased that they ultimately landed at Channel 4 and E4.

Channel 4's chief creative officer, Jay Hunt, said:

Channel 4 has had real success with Warner Bros shows such as The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls so I'm thrilled to be bringing more of the best acquisitions to the Channel 4 network.